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I have always been attracted to women with dark hair. If you find that statement utterly¹ irrelevant² to anything I do professionally, that's because it is.

Now, I'm fortunate that a brilliant woman with dark hair loves me, and I'm sure that makes me better at what I do. But nobody would ask me about that if I were to run for office.

They might rightly have questions about my competence³. But nobody would care what sort of women I was attracted to — as long as they were adults — even if I were young and single.

But what if I happened to be gay?

That's a question many people in politics who happen to be gay or lesbian are facing, every day. Not long ago, the only way a gay person could be elected to anything was to be as deeply in the closet as possible.

This made for a lot of hypocrisy⁴ and personal unhappiness. Today we are in a new, but uncertain world. The Supreme⁵ Court has decreed that people of the same sex can marry in every state of the union, and those marriages must be universally recognized.

However, in Michigan, an employer can still fire or refuse to hire you for being gay, a weird⁶ anomaly that makes no sense. And there are also still voters who don't accept homosexuality and who would be strongly inclined to vote against any openly gay candidate.

Should they have a right to know? Is it anyone's business?

This is something currently being faced by one candidate for higher office, a man who has great personal and professional integrity and has been a highly effective legislator.

People in both parties like and respect him, something which in itself is considerably⁷ rare these days. I've known him for many years, and like most people, supposed he was gay, but never asked him, nor for that matter, thought much about it.

What I thought about was what he was doing about things like road funding. To the best of my knowledge, he has never talked about his sexuality at all in public.

But should he have to? Dana Nessel, a candidate for attorney general who does happen to be openly gay, tells me that some gay people deeply resent what they see as the hypocrisy of anybody who remains⁸ in the closet, and will vote against them.

There are, however, people who don't want to face the burden of telling aged⁹ parents or grandparents who they fear may not be accepting. Should they have to?

This is a dilemma¹⁰ for journalists as well as politicians. Personally, I think we ought to have a “don't ask, don't tell policy” in covering politics for a number of reasons.

Mostly, that's because when you inject sex into any discussion, it tends to blot¹¹ out everything else. We gave too little thought to too many important issues back in the two years we were obsessing¹² over Monica Lewinsky and her blue dress.

Frankly¹³, I wouldn't care if someone made love to a cotton gin if they could fix the schools and the roads. But there is a real question as to how much of their private lives a candidate needs to reveal to the public. I suspect we will be struggling with this for some time to come.

Jack¹⁴ Lessenberry is Michigan Radio's Senior Political Analyst¹⁵. Views expressed in his essays are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of Michigan Radio, its management, or the station licensee, the University of Michigan.

1 utterly   

adv.完全地，绝对地

参考例句：

• Utterly devoted to the people,he gave his life in saving his patients.他忠于人民，把毕生精力用于挽救患者的生命。
• I was utterly ravished by the way she smiled.她的微笑使我完全陶醉了。

2 irrelevant   

adj.不恰当的，无关系的，不相干的

参考例句：

• That is completely irrelevant to the subject under discussion.这跟讨论的主题完全不相关。
• A question about arithmetic is irrelevant in a music lesson.在音乐课上，一个数学的问题是风马牛不相及的。

3 competence   

n.能力，胜任，称职

参考例句：

• This mess is a poor reflection on his competence.这种混乱情况说明他难当此任。
• These are matters within the competence of the court.这些是法院权限以内的事。

4 hypocrisy   

n.伪善，虚伪

参考例句：

• He railed against hypocrisy and greed.他痛斥伪善和贪婪的行为。
• He accused newspapers of hypocrisy in their treatment of the story.他指责了报纸在报道该新闻时的虚伪。

5 supreme   

adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的

参考例句：

• It was the supreme moment in his life.那是他一生中最重要的时刻。
• He handed up the indictment to the supreme court.他把起诉书送交最高法院。

6 weird   

adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的

参考例句：

• From his weird behaviour,he seems a bit of an oddity.从他不寻常的行为看来，他好像有点怪。
• His weird clothes really gas me.他的怪衣裳简直笑死人。

7 considerably   

adv.极大地；相当大地；在很大程度上

参考例句：

• The economic situation has changed considerably.经济形势已发生了相当大的变化。
• The gap has narrowed considerably.分歧大大缩小了。

8 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

9 aged   

adj.年老的，陈年的

参考例句：

• He had put on weight and aged a little.他胖了，也老点了。
• He is aged,but his memory is still good.他已年老，然而记忆力还好。

10 dilemma   

n.困境，进退两难的局面

参考例句：

• I am on the horns of a dilemma about the matter.这件事使我进退两难。
• He was thrown into a dilemma.他陷入困境。

11 blot   

vt.弄脏（用吸墨纸）吸干；n.污点，污渍

参考例句：

• That new factory is a blot on the landscape.那新建的工厂破坏了此地的景色。
• The crime he committed is a blot on his record.他犯的罪是他的履历中的一个污点。

12 obsessing   

v.时刻困扰( obsess的现在分词 )；缠住；使痴迷；使迷恋

参考例句：

• Why is everyone obsessing over system specs right now? 为啥现在人人都对系统配置情有独钟？ 来自互联网
• A nitpicker, obsessing over dimes, is too stiff to place orders. 一个连一毛钱都舍不得亏的人，因太过拘谨而不能下单。 来自互联网

13 frankly   

adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说

参考例句：

• To speak frankly, I don't like the idea at all.老实说，我一点也不赞成这个主意。
• Frankly speaking, I'm not opposed to reform.坦率地说，我不反对改革。

14 jack   

n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克

参考例句：

• I am looking for the headphone jack.我正在找寻头戴式耳机插孔。
• He lifted the car with a jack to change the flat tyre.他用千斤顶把车顶起来换下瘪轮胎。

15 analyst   

n.分析家，化验员；心理分析学家

参考例句：

• What can you contribute to the position of a market analyst?你有什么技能可有助于市场分析员的职务？
• The analyst is required to interpolate values between standards.分析人员需要在这些标准中插入一些值。